1946 PCA Flight 105 crash

The 1946 PCA Flight 105 crash was a fatal airline accident at Birmingham Municipal Airport which took the lives of three people just before 4:00 PM on January 6, 1946. To date it is the only fatal incident involving a passenger carrier at the airport.

A Douglas DC-3 aircraft operating as Pennsylvania Central Airlines Flight 105 from Knoxville with 7 passengers landed by instrument in stormy weather on Runway 18. The craft failed to slow down enough to avoid crashing through a barrier fence into Village Creek. Three of the four crew members sustained fatal injuries. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair. Investigators from the Civil Aviation Board placed blame on "the action of the pilot in committing himself to a landing from an approach which was too high and too fast."

References

• Civil Aviation Board file no. 301-46, adopted June 17, 1946
• accident details at planecrashinfo.com - accessed February 3, 2009